Controlling a gain setting in a hearing instrument
AssigneePhonak AG
InventorsSilvia Allegro Baumann, Stefan Launer
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
According to the invention, in a hearing instrument it is once or repeatedly checked whether a second hearing instrument is present and active. If a second hearing instrument is active on the contralateral side, a first gain (corresponding to the gain for binaural fitting) is applied. If, however, no further hearing instrument is found to be active, a second—increased—gain is applied. The second gain may simply correspond to the first gain increased by a certain dB value. It may as an alternative be a specifically adapted gain characteristic of a monaural fitting for the user.
Claims13
A method of controlling a gain setting of a hearing instrument, the hearing instrument being operable to determine an output audio signal from at least one input signal and to supply said output audio signal to one ear of a user, the hearing instrument comprising a communication interface operable to establish a communication link to a further hearing instrument, the method comprising the steps of determining, using the communication interface, whether a further hearing instrument for the other ear of the user is active, of adopting a first gain setting if a further hearing instrument for the other ear of the user is active, and of adopting a second gain setting different from the first gain setting if no further hearing instrument is active.
In a hearing instrument system comprising a first and a second hearing instrument, the first and the second hearing instrument adapted to supply, upon incidence of an input signal, a first and a second output audio signal to a first and a second ear of a user, respectively, a method of setting a hearing instrument parameter, the method comprising the steps of, by at least one of said first and said second hearing instruments, polling a status information from the other one of said first and second hearing instruments, and of setting, by said one hearing instrument, a hearing instrument parameter depending on the status of said other hearing instrument.
In a hearing instrument system comprising a first and a second hearing instrument, the first and the second hearing instrument adapted to supply, upon incidence of an input signal, a first and a second output audio signal to a first and a second ear of a user, respectively, a method of setting a hearing instrument parameter, the method comprising the steps of proactively sending, by at least one of said first and second hearing instruments, at least one of repeatedly and of in case of imminent instrument failure, a status signal to the other one of said first and second hearing instruments, and of setting, by said other hearing a hearing instrument parameter depending on the status signal received.
A hearing instrument comprising a signal processing unit operable to generate an output signal from at least one input signal and an electric-to-acoustic converter, an input of which is operatively connected to an output of the signal processing unit and which is operable to supply an acoustic output signal to one ear of a user, the hearing instrument further comprising a communication interface operable to exchange information with a further hearing instrument, the hearing instrument being programmed so as to be operable to detect, using the communication interface, whether a further hearing instrument associated with the other ear of the user is active, and to apply a first gain to the input signal if a further hearing instrument is found to be active, or to apply a second gain to the input signal if no further hearing instrument is found to be active.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.